Discussion: Is There Pressure To Read In The Book-Blogging Community? ft. lists (!!)

THERE ARE SOMETHINGS THAT BOOK-BLOGGERS NEED TO ADMIT:

1) that there will never be a sole ship, there will always be an ARMADA, 2) Books will never be pretty 1560% of the time, 3) AUTHORS WILL ALWAYS BE TORTURING US,4) Dragons do exist, 5) we cannot read every single book ever no matter how much we try, 6) we are made of 80% stress and craze.

Now, since in almost every single post that I write, and that many other’s write, the dooming TBRs are mentioned, I thought that I would actually address this TBR-CRAZE. In previous posts of mine, I have legitimately referred to a TBR as “[something that] will grow to an, even more, unconquerable pile and then we will die with a pile of unread books scattered around us and we will be buried with the shame on display for all to see.”

^^^ SIDE-NOTE: I should totally do definitions for the dictionary. ^^^

Now, even though I wrote that, and yes, its intent was to be comedic*, I feel there actually is this PRESSURE to read every. single. book. out. there. And even as much as I wish I would be able to do that, I know deep down that I can’t. **

Why people like to read:

Escapism.

Relaxes them.

The book sounds cool.

another blogger threw it at them.

They jus bought it because of the cover**

PRESSURE ON THE INTERNET TO READ MORE AND THEN IT DRAINS THE ENJOYMENT BECAUSE EVERYONE IS RAVING ABOUT IT SO OBVS YOU NEED TO BE TOO, RIGHT????

And fair enough, some people may not feel the pressure that I refer to in this post, and may be laughing at the stupidity at such an idea. However, I do feel this pressure???And I’m not convinced that I’m the only one that feels this way.

*I’m hoping it was, if not. . . *cries* ** I KNOW. DISASTER!! (see this is what I mean!!) ***WHO WOULD DO SUCH A THING? oh, yeah, me. . .

On Goodreads, you see all these goals for 2018* that are much higher than yours, mine for example being set at 45 and then seeing many many more goals being set at 100 books or more. I understand entirely that there are different reading speeds, and if you can read that many books in a year, CONGRATS that’s honestly so cool. But part of me thinks, why can’t I do that?

And don’t get me wrong, I think that Goodreads goals are a brilliant thing because it really made me want to read more last year, and many people meet/exceed the goal that they set and THAT IS SO MOTIVATING.

BUT.

Before I started blogging, I purely read books to fill my free time and it became a hobby. I didn’t set Goodreads goals, and I loved reading, and I still do. and I never panicked about my reading speed/ how meany books I read a month. But I’m sitting here, on the 7th day of the new year, panicking over WHAT BOOK TO READ, and panicking over the fact that I don’t feel thatI CAN’T READ FAST ENOUGH and that I’ve only read ONE book.

And it’s utterly silly. Its Ludicrous.**

Panicking over a book to read? I’m collapsing with HYSTERICS. The fact that I let myself worry so much actually makes me laugh, because really, THERE IS NO PRESSURE RIGHT? I can read when I want, I can read whatever I want, and no one can interfere with that. YET, I’m the one that decides that obviously because I’m not reading 3257 books in one month I need to change that and be more like other bloggers and read more.

EVEN THOUGH RIGHT NOW I’M HAPPY WITH THE BOOKS I READ, YET I’ll always want to read MORE.

Why people want to read more:

the books they haven’t read sound really cool.

someone with amazing recommendations recommended it to them. SO DUH THEY NEED TO READ IT.

They saw 467 pretty books and thought, “hey, I need those rn”

THEY WANT TO GET TO THEIR GOODREADS GOAL.

They see everyone else reading loads and immediately decide that they aren’t reading enough and being a bad bookworm so THEY DECIDE THEY NEED TO PICK UP THE PACE 537 MORE BOOKS TO READ AT ONE TIME.

*still strange saying that. **don’t say I’m never punny, ok?

And I think that the more and more we joke around about wanting to read “ALL THE BOOKS” and the more that we “sob” on the internet about NOT being able to do this, the more we actually stress our sane part of our brain out and then all of a sudden we are no longer joke-stressing out about this, but legitimately-stressing about the amount of books we read.

WHICH !! IS !! SILLY !! because, we all have lives (mine consists of sitting in a cave and withering away) and, no, we cannot read all the time. There are slumps, and books that take longer to read than others, exams etc, that prevent us from being able to read all the books we want to.

AND WE SHOULDN’T STRESS. But, we do. Because we are bookworms, and that is what we do.

It’s similar to the way that we stress about the “need” for us to post, and for us to have super long posts, or to be active on twitter 674% of the time, and to always have space on out shelves, and all that jhdlrgberhb that we should just relax about.

BUT DO WE RELAX?

NOOOOOOOO!!

WHY NOT?

I DON’T KNOW!!

SHOULD WE?

PROBABLY!!

So here we are/ I am, stressing over the fact that I/ we stress about reading.

What do you think about how much you read? Do you want to read more? Do you think about how much you read a lot? Do you think that you think too much about how much you read? What are your reading goals for 2017? Let me know!

47 thoughts on “Discussion: Is There Pressure To Read In The Book-Blogging Community? ft. lists (!!)”

[…] Lu @ It’s Lu Again has some of the greatest discussion posts, from insecurities to ARCs to reading to, well, everything, I just happen to love every topic she tackles, brilliantly and with her witty, unique voice. […]

My Goodreads goal was 100 books last year, and the year before, and the year before that. Cutting it down to 75 for this year felt like a failure, but I had to and I feel better now that I have. I just can’t keep up with 100 books anymore. I’m in a different place in life now.

It’s great that you’re feeling better now that you’ve lowered it, I think that it’s important to prioritise yourself over the books that you read, and now that you don’t have to stress about reading, you can really enjoy the books that you do read!!

I’ve just drafted a post about this, so I’ll link to yours (mine is more about how I want to stop reading just YA, because that blogging community makes me feel all this pressure to only read certain types of books). Anyway, YOU’RE SO RIGHT!! Also: HI LU!! I’m Shar 🙂 Because of book blogging, I have a thousand books to read yet no time to do it. And I want reading to be an enjoyable thing, not something I stress about because if I don’t read I won’t be able to write posts or fangirl. But I don’t know how to stop this psychological pressure #halp #plshalp (i hear you like hashtags…)
Shar @ Virtually Read

Well my reading goal for this year is 50 books, and last year it was 40, and the year before that it was 30, so at least I’m upping my game. XD But I don’t feel as much like I’m not reading enough books in general as to what books I’m actually reading. Like I’m reeeaaaalllly behind in reading books that came out years ago, and I read like zero arcs or new releases because I’m too busy trying to catch up on books I missed out on. So I’m afraid people will think I’m boring because I don’t talk about the same books everyone else does? And yet it’s supposed to be a good thing to not do the exact same thing as everyone else? Ugh, I don’t know.

Omg yes, I think that’s a really good goal!! I was hoping for 50 books this year too, but have decided to lower is because exams:(

OMG yes catching up on books from ages ago is literally the worst thing because it means you’re constantly behind and that SUCKS.

I TOTALLY GET IT. YES. I’m reading older books (they’re not even that old?!?) and then i feel like im not reading books that are as popular and then I worry about when I’m going to read current books that i want to read 😦 I TOTALLY GET YOU.

YES YES YES YES TO ALL OF THIS. I really feel a pressure when it comes to reading, sometimes – though I don’t feel it as much as I used to when I started blogging. I think I am slowly trying to chill, even if it’s hard, haha. It’s so hard not to compare with the amount of books other bloggers are reading, AND it’s even harder when we take a look at our TBRs and realize how many books we want to read and won’t be able to read because timeeeeeeee. This makes me crazy 😂😂😂 I think it’s important to chill and remember that we love reading. That’s the most important thing.

YES YES ITS SO DIFFICULT NOT TO COMPARE OURSELVES!!!! And yesss the huge TBRS are so difficult not to pressure yourself about!!! Yes I think that the most important thing to remember is that we love reading and it doesn’t matter how much we read 💕

I noticed that when I first started to get into blogging and Goodreads last year, I became obsessed with how many books I read. I was in the same boat as you — before, I would read for fun, but it suddenly became this panicked thing in which I was trying to read 120 books in a year, which was doable… but was I really enjoying myself? In the end, I stopped using Goodreads and began to read for fun and understanding rather than a number. That shift in mentality made reading so much more fun again 😋 This was such a relatable post — I hope you find a way to be less stressed about reading 😂😂😂 (Though, true, is that even possible for bookworms when our unrealistic but well sought-after goal is to read every single book on this planet? Who knows? 😉)

Oh, I LOVE this post, Lu!! I 100% agree that there is a lot of stress in the book blogging community to read a lot of books. For me, setting a Goodreads goal is really helpful bc I find all goals helpful, but if it causes a WHOLE LOT of stress, then you might need to lower it?? Everyone reads at their own pace and has different ideas of what is a lot or a little amount of books to read! Also, as book bloggers, I feel like some people think that they have to read a specific amount of books to be a book blogger, which is NOT TRUE AT ALL.

Oh goodness, only a paragraph into the post and you’ve already described me so perfectly with “made of 80% of stress and craze”. HAHAHA, LOOK IT’S ME!

Why wouldn’t dragons exist? I mean, I’M A DRAGON AND THIS IS CLEAR PROOF!!

Yes, there is a certain pressure to read, especially as bloggers or youtubers. I mean, in 8th grade, I almost gave up books because I wanted to be seen as normal and not the girl who constantly had a book glued to her face. YES, I READ DURING LUNCH, THE PLATE IN FRONT, THE BOOK BEHIND FAR ENOUGH AWAY SO THAT FOOD DIDN’T SPLATTER ON IT. I loved reading for just reading, then, and oh goodness, do I still ever!

However, when I set a Goodreads goal to read 100 books last year, I only updated my GR to 45 of the however many books I read in reality because I was too lazy to update. I set it to 120 this year because I’m clearly insane.

This year, I have so many books I want to read, just not enough time with so much school and tests and basic life stuff.

I used to actually enjoy the books I read when I was in middle school and I had all the feels and emotional turmoil, but now, at the ripe age of 16, I have so many RESPONSIBILITIES that I can barely find time to read and even when I have free time, I usually spend it stressing like nobody’s business xD

120 BOOKS?? THAT’S loads!!! Same here, I want to read loads, but I’m just not sure that I’m going to have the time and it’s so sad!!

same here, in the UK when you’re sixteen THERE ARE SO MANY EXAMS and it’s about to start in about 3 months and we already have to start prepping for them and I cannot!! SO ALL MY ENERGY IS GOING INTO STRESSING AND STUDYING and now I can’t even pick up a book without feeling bad!!!

IT’S NASTY!! AND, I JUST SO HAPPEN TO BE TERRIBLE AT IT!! IT’S A MIX OF GROSS GRAPHS AND MATH AND GRAVITY. I’m surprised that I have a pretty good grade for the semester, I now just need to keep it at a steady A or B for the next semester and THEN NEXT YEAR IS MY LAST YEAR OF HIGH SCHOOL AND I GRADUATE AND WOOOHHOOOO!!

I KNOW, RIGHT??!! There is content on the ACT that we won’t learn until AFTER we have already taken it!!!! LOGIC?? I DON’T THINK SO!

AHHHH NOOOO!!!!!!!!!! I HOPE THAT IT ALL GOES WELL FOR YOU!!!!!!!
THERE’S NO LOGIC THERE. In our exams (specially the science) there will be questions that we’ve never learnt about and have to figure out what to APPLY from our own knowledge!! AND I CAN’T DO THAT!!!!!!!!!

I definitely see where you’re coming from and I felt this pressure too, but Idk. I feel like once you take a step back and really think about what /you/ have to gain/not gain from reading a lot it’s easier to let go of the stress. Like, is reading 70 books this year instead of 30 really going to make me happier? As opposed to dedicating time to other hobbies or self improvement and such, the long term effects of just reading reading reading (forgetting series, reading short stuff I’m not necessarily interested in to reach a goal, etc) make it feel so pointless to stress about it. I’ve read the least amount of books this year and I think I’m going to continue to read less than I used to just because I’ve found more joy in other hobbies and I can read when I feel like without any pressure so I’m starting to pick up books I was putting off for whatever reason.

Exactly, I think that it’s important to remember that reading more books is not going to make someone happier or not. And it’s good not to always focus on reading, and and it’s great to have other hobbies and take care of yourself!!

What a great post Lu! I can completely relate to this! I feel like I’m often stressing about how much I’m reading, and how I should read more, and it’s actually ridiculous! Not to mention I see how someone else achieves their goal of forty books or whatever, and I’m genuinely pleased for them, and think it’s great that they read that many books, and then I’m like, “If I don’t read two hundred books this year I am an utter failure!” and it’s just incredibly stupid.
Luckily though, for me even if I do stress about reading a bit (Or, you know, a lot…), it doesn’t seem to take away any of the enjoyment I get from reading, I just stress when I don’t read for a couple days or something.

THIS.
*****T.H.I.S.
This is such a true and important post, cuz I feel the same way about this too! Though unintentional, I think there is definitely a pressure we create and put on ourselves because we compare ourselves to other people in the blogging community- and though we shouldn’t and we put on unrealistic pressure on ourselves- we still do it!! I’ve read two books till now and I’m half way into my third, but I’m already freaked that I wont reach my 100 books goal. We should totally calm down and chill, cuz we’re all different people who have different reading abilities, but that’s really easy to say and really difficult to do??? GREAT POST

I can honestly say that other people’s reading doesn’t really affect me at all but that might be because I can read ridiculously fast and a lot in short notice? I just never liked comparing myself to others since I always was the odd one out anyway. Why would I start now? When it comes to reading? Nope, not going there.
I do stress out sometimes but that’s more to do with “Why can’t I freaking STOP requesting books already? It’s not like I don’t already have 150 books at home that I haven’t even read yet?!” But still.. That request-button on NG will be the death of me..

Honestly, I sometimes wish I could share my “not comparing, not caring”-attitude with people because I know some bloggers who’ve literally crashed and burned because of that exact reading-pressure you’re mentioning. It isn’t supposed to be like that, guys! We should have fun reading; do it for ourselves and not compare our stats to others’. We’re not the same freaking person; we’re all different. Of course our reading is different as well…

AHH I DON’T USE NG??? I’d request TOO many books and i wouldn’t be able to stay CALM at all.
EXACTLY EXACTLY EXACTLY!! We HAVE to remember that we are reading for ourselves, and we need to remember that!!

The real stress for me is that reading is a passion but: many things get in the way. And I know that I’m never going to read all the books I want – unless I’ve a super free life – so I know that managing a schedule should be great. But also I know that my life is busy so it happens that I might not have time time for reading. That’s even for days. Plus if we count that reading is a form keeping out stress… well, it’s some kind of autodescruction machine XD

Personally, I definitely feel the pressure. When I started my blog it was simply to share my love for reading and to put my voice out there on everything bookish. As my blog began to grow however, I received more and more emails and requests from authors and publishers to review books, even from genres that I never reviewed before. At first, this was exciting to actually have my voice heard and to have my opinion matter so I accepted all. Now though, I look at my inbox and almost dread seeing the requests – it’s just sooooo much!!!!
I absolutely love reading and book blogging, don’t get me wrong. I will continue, but I definitely do have that stress at times!!!
Anyway, great post and happy reading! 🙂

I really don’t think about how much I read or stress out about reading at all. I set goals for myself and only myself and not to compare how much I read with others, so I don’t think too much about how much I read either. I use the Goodreads challenge as motivation.

THIS ACTUALLY SPOKE TO MY SOUL. I don’t how to make the “soul” italicized BUT ITS SUPPOSED TO BE IN INTALICS OKAY because I can’t stress how much this post hit me. ITS SO FREAKING TRUE. When I first joined, I used to joke along with everyone else about having an endless TBR and so many books to read but ITS COME TRUE. I HAVE run out bookshelf space, I AM drowning in books to read, I AM drowning in just about everything. Its becoming impossible. Read this rec, read backlist books, read ARcs, read the hyped book, read this huge series, and YOU JUST DON’T KNOW WHERE TO START. I’m aiming for 150 books this year and as you can imagine SO MUCH STRESS?! I am ON TRACK but I have no idea, when exams start if I’ll be able to keep up with that. I might change it to 100 but a part of me is conformed to the book blogger world and is stubborn and wants to get to 150. I REALLY wish we could go back to a world where we just fangirl over books an throw recommendations and hype books but we do it at our OWN pace and understand that not all of us get to sit in caves and wither away (no offence Lu) UGH I AGREE WITH EVERYTHING HERE LU(dicrous)

I AM GLAD.
REMEMBER TO READ FOR YOU. YOU IS MEANT TO BE ITALICISED, BUT IT WONT WORK. Exactly, we all have our own pace and as long as YOU are happy with what you’re reading, and stressing remains something that you love, that’s all OK!!